Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton Has $230,000 Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton cut its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 228 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton’s holdings in Aflac were worth $230,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AFL. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 6,078 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $629,000 after acquiring an additional 1,068 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital increased its position in shares of Aflac by 25.8% during the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,809 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,809 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC bought a new position in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $74,000. Aprio Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Aflac by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,161 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after buying an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its position in Aflac by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 108,405 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,213,000 after buying an additional 5,731 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total transaction of $2,558,529.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,018,701.20. This trade represents a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Trading Up 1.5 %

AFL opened at $102.52 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.02. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50. The company has a market cap of $56.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AFL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Aflac from $108.00 to $107.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.29.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. The company operates through Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. segments. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care, work leave, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan.